The No-Fail Holiday Gift Guide for Developers

Published Dec 22, 2016Last updated Dec 14, 2017

Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and other holidays are just around the corner! If you’re feeling generous this season but you’re not sure what to buy, we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of the best gifts for engineers, particularly software engineers and web developers. We asked our mentors to share what is on their wishlist for this holiday season and put together this list.

Show your appreciation for the developers you know with these gifts:

Well-wishing: Free – 💰

Sending a greeting card can show someone that you remember them this holiday season. You can always send a DIY card but there are also plenty of websites for sending pre-made e-cards. If you want to customize your e-cards, you can try Postable or Punchbowl.

But if you're looking for cards to give personally or send in the post, codecards has "letterpress greeting and holiday cards for nerds." Below is a photo of one of their holiday cards especially made for developers.

Stocking Stuffers 💰

Playing Secret Santa or White Elephant with your colleagues this year? Not planning to spend more than $20-30? Give the gift of laughter with t-shirts that programmers can relate to:

Subscriptions and more 💰 – 💰💰

Interestingly, subscriptions were a popular gift choice for developers this year — not magazine subscriptions, but subscriptions to some of the popular online learning resources. Give the gift of knowledge with one of these:

Amazon's Kindle is a great gift for the engineers who enjoy reading. Better yet, you can pair this with one of the subscriptions from the previous section for a really awesome gift.

3D Printer

Turn ideas into objects that you can touch or print things to use around the house (here are 35 useful projects). Finder 3D is a reasonably priced printer that is quiet and has good print quality — be sure to check out the best 3D printers this year to familiarize yourself with what's currently available on the market.

Portable Wi-Fi Router

Know someone who hates the feeling of not having internet?

For those who wantneed internet everywhere they go, this magical device (aka a portable wi-fi router paired with a SIM card for data) is the ultimate gift for those who are constantly traveling or digital nomads on the go. Unless of course, they go somewhere with no reception...😱

To all the developers out there, happy holidays, from all of us at Codementor! May your code be clean and bug-free. ✌️